The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
In electrical systems ranging in size from small portable electronic devices to large industrial machinery it is common for different components in a system to operate at different voltage levels. In order for those different components to operate off of a common power supply such as a battery or generator, components operating at different voltages must be connected to the power source through a power converter, such as a direct current (DC) to DC converter or an alternating current (AC) to DC converter. Power converters also improve the interchangeability and scalability of components by eliminating the need for every component to have its own, customized power source.
Inrush current suppression circuitry currently known in the art has undesirable temperature variance, and depending on the application utilizing the power converter, the power converter might need to operate under conditions ranging from below −55° C. to above 95° C. This wide range of operating temperatures greatly limits the extent to which inrush current can be suppressed. For example, inrush current suppression circuitry known in the art for a typical DC-to-DC power converter operating at steady state currents of between 4 and 5 amps might be able to limit inrush current to 15 amps, but it is often desired to limit inrush current to much lower amounts, such as 8.5 amps. Achieving this combination of narrow current ranges and widely varying operating temperatures, however, is extremely difficult, if not impossible, with the temperature-dependent inrush current suppression circuitry known in the art.